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Host Tom Temin brings you the latest news affecting the federal community each weekday morning, featuring interviews with top government executives and contractors. Listen live from 6 to 9 a.m. or download archived interviews below.

Dorothy Robyn, commissioner of GSA's Public Buildings Service

The General Services Administration has turned federal buildings into labs for green
technology. Think tinted windows and programmable lighting systems.

"We use our federal office buildings as a test bed or a beta site to do a rigorous
process of evaluation for technologies that we think are promising but that face
impediments to broader adoption or commercialization in the commercial market,"
Dorothy Robyn, commissioner of GSA's Public Buildings Service, told Federal Drive with Tom Temin and Emily
Kopp "We think out ability to provide credible objective data can help
these technologies break into the market."

Dorothy Robyn, Public Buildings Service commissioner at the General Services Administration

The first new technology focuses on Mag-Lev Chillers, which utilize
magnetic levitation to eliminate friction and reduce the need for oil in large air
conditioning plants that cool high-rise buildings.

"If you can eliminate that friction and that need for oil, then you can
substantially improve their efficiency," Robyn said. "So, we tested out a new
technology for a Mag-Lev Chiller and we found that it works quite well. We will be
incorporating that as our existing chillers wear out. We will be incorporating
Mag-Lev Chillers where that makes sense."

GSA tests all of these new technologies in its own buildings. The agency puts out
a competition in partnership with the departments of Defense and Energy for
companies to pitch new technologies that they want to try out. Each year, GSA
chooses a small number of these technologies to test, matching them up with
appropriate buildings.

"We have a low budget, so the manufacturers give us the technology," Robyn said.
"DoD has a similar program with which we work closely and they actually provide
money. It's two different approaches. But, we get the manufacturers to donate the
technologies to us, because they're very interested in having the rigorous,
objective test to help them break into the market."

As part of evaluation process, GSA is not just testing how well the technology
performs but also how well it integrates into a work space. Are employees
comfortable working with the technology? Do they like having it their office?

GSA and DoD are currently testing electrochromic glass — windows that tint
darker as the sun comes out.

"It's a promising new technology, but it faces impediments to widespread
adoption," Robyn said. "Part of what we're testing is do employees like having
that on a large-scale, when you put that all over a building? The whole idea is
that you replace shades with this kind of window. So, are they comfortable working
in that environment?"

It's too soon for a final verdict on the tinted windows, but Robyn said GSA has
them on its building to a limited degree and no one has really noticed them.

"Architects really like the technology," she said. "The challenge that this faces
is it's more expensive than regular glass, but it allows you to get by with a
smaller chiller, a smaller air-conditioning system, because it's reducing the
solar heat gain in the building. There are savings from being able to use a
smaller chiller, but it's hard to get engineers to agree to put in a smaller
chiller if they're building a new building or renovating a building. They're very
nervous about doing that. Nobody ever got fired for putting in too big a chiller,
but you definitely could get in trouble if you put too small a chiller."

Once GSA identifies a technolgy as a potential cost-saver for the federal
government, the next challenge is figuring out how to pay for installation when a
building is being retrofitted.

"That's a big, big problem for us in the current budget," Robyn said. "We are
taking advantage of something called ESPCs — energy savings performance
contracts. A large company like a Honeywell or a Johnson Controls or Siemens,
comes in and anaylizes our buildings and says, 'These are the 10 things we think
will make your building more efficient and reduce your utility bill. We will front
the cost of installing those improvements. And then, you pay us out of the savings
on your utility bill.'"

In 2011, President Barack Obama established a goal for agencies to do $2 billion worth of these
performance based contracts by the end of 2013. Obama recently set new goals,
since many agencies are on track to meet the first goal.

"Our federally owned GSA buildings are extremely energy efficient compared to
their commercial counterparts," Robyn said. "We have advanced meters. We have very
sophisticated building analytics that allow us to know how we're doing and to make
adjustments in real time. So, we've made big strides. We've got a ways to go, but
we've made big strides."

The commercial buildings GSA leases are another matter.

"We know we are paying more for energy in those buildings, but we don't own them,"
Robyn said. "So, it's harder for us to get at that. We're talking about whether
there's a way to use these performance contracts in leased buildings, but I'm not
sure there's a good answer to that."